Psalm 119

English Standard Version (ESV)

Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

153 Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!

Sickness is a terrible thing, is it not? Yet affliction is much more than just sickness.

Exodus 3:7-8a Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…

The Lord is my salvation and my redeemer. – [Psalm 27:1a, 19:14b]

155 Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.

רָשָׁע – rasha`

When was the last time you heard a criminal called wicked? (Have you ever in this 21st century tolerance for the ways of the wicked?)

Outline of Biblical Usage

Job 21:17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God distributes pains in his anger?

156 Great is your mercy, O Lord;
give me life according to your rules.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.

Do our persecutors not pursue us and tempt us to swerve from the straight path of the Lord? Do our adversaries not always attempt to back us into a corner of darkness away from the Lord?

158 I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.

The NASB translates more pointedly:

I behold the treacherous and loathe them,
Because they do not keep Your word (promise).

159 Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
160 The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Psalm 119:160 KJV  Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Matthew 5 KJV The Words of Christ Jesus on the Mount of Olives

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.